3/12/2010

Senate Health Care Reform Bill is Not Good Enough

Senate Bill is Not Explicit Enough About Abortion Funding

So, the Senate Health Care Bill is going to be reconciled with the House Bill. But there's a problem. The Senate Bill does not have the same language as the House Bill, which has the Stupak Amendment in it explicitly keeping federal funds from paying for abortions.

The majority of Democrats are trying to tell us that the Senate Bill reflects the Hyde Amendment (Hyde is not a permanent law, but a rider that must be passed each year to bar the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services from appropriating funds toward abortions). But the fact is this: our tax dollars will be used to pay for health plans that cover abortions under the Senate health care reform bill.

Our tax dollars must not pay for that which violates the consciences of so many American citizens. We should not have to pay for another person’s choice to have an abortion. However, that is exactly what happens when pro-life individuals must pay into an insurance plan that covers abortions.

Sure, the might appear that my tax dollars are not paying for abortions, but in reality, I am going to be subsidizing insurance plans that cover abortions, a radical departure from the Hyde Amendment, which explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds to support plans that provide abortion. It has been a long-held understanding that subsidizing plans that provide abortion is tantamount to supporting abortion with federal funds.